The nation's 10th largest Christian denomination approved a
measure that lifts a more than decade-long ban on ordaining openly LGBT clergy.
But a few hours after the vote, delegates to the Presbyterians' 219th General
Assembly in Minneapolis declined to reformulate the church's understanding of
marriage to include same-sex couples.

The vote to defer any discussion of marriage equality
prompted Soulforce, an LGBT faith organization, to interrupt assembly
proceedings with a civil disobedience action in which 11 people were arrested
when they refused to leave the convention hall.

Both votes in Minneapolis on Thursday, July 8 were close,
with ordination equality passing 373-323 – a margin of 53 percent to 46
percent. The vote to table marriage equality – by accepting a final
committee report to preserve the current marriage status quo – passed
348-324 with six abstentions, a slim 51 percent to 49 percent margin.

And yet the next day, July 9, the General Assembly approved
a measure, proposed by the Board of Pensions, to extend health care benefits to
same-sex partners and spouses, including dependent children. The vote to
approve passed by 366-287, with nine abstentions.

In striking down the celibacy requirement, the Presbyterian
Church (USA) adopted "one standard for all," said Michael Adee,
executive director of More Light Presbyterians (http://www.mlp.org),
an LGBT advocacy organization. "Instead of looking at one's marital status
or sexual orientation or gender identity, it's about a person's life, faith,
and character," he said.

Previously, candidates for ordination as ministers, deacons,
and elders were held to a "fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness
clause," which in effect, Adee said, "mandated compulsive
heterosexuality or the imposition of celibacy or chastity, depending on how one
reads the text."

Under the new overture, the wording of "joyful
submission to worship of Christ" replaces the language of
"fidelity" and "chastity."

Oklahoma native Heather Grantham, a seminarian at the Marin
County-based San Francisco Theological Seminary, considers the new ordination
standard "a better and higher standard," she said, adding, "It's
a step forward on all fronts, whether gay or straight."

Now, "it's not all about sex," said Grantham, who
attended General Assembly in two capacities, young adult and theological
student advisory delegate. She also serves as family ministry director for the
Noe Valley Ministry Presbyterian Church in San Francisco, which is a More Light
welcoming and affirming congregation.

Work ahead

For ordination equality to become church law, however, it
must be approved by ratification votes in a majority of the 173 U.S. governing
bodies or presbyteries.

Harry Knox, religion and faith director for the Human Rights
Campaign, voiced hope that church presbyteries will ratify the equal ordination
overture.

"The last time, they fell short but it was pretty
close," he said.

This time, Knox said, the LGBT affinity groups, namely, More
Light and That All May Freely Serve (http://www.tamfs.org),
another LGBT Presbyterian advocacy group, have "solidified their support
for ordination" through a "detailed process of public education"
with a "priority to move presbyteries" that need to be brought along.

Still, "I don't take it for granted," said Lisa
Larges, the San Francisco-based minister coordinator for That All May Freely
Serve. "One of the things we've talked about is that the presbyteries
won't talk about it if they are not forced to. So this forces us to have the
conversation [about ordination equality] one more time."

Marriage may well now be on the cutting edge for the church,
Larges believes.

"That gives me hope that as ordination becomes more
mainstream, the church is finally ready for it," she said. "If the
Lutherans are ahead of us, the water cannot be that dangerous to jump
into."

Meanwhile, the close vote to dodge marriage equality took
some delegates by surprise. Earlier in the week the assembly's committee on
civil union and marriage had voted 38-18 to change the church constitution's
understanding of marriage as a covenant between "two people" rather
than "a man and a woman."

The change, a committee statement said, "Would
recognize committed, lifelong relationships that are already being lived out by
our members."

"We Presbyterians like to study, which is not a bad
thing," Cindy Bolbach, a church elder and the assembly's elected
moderator, told the Associated Press.

The assembly's deferral buys time for the 2.8 million-member
mainstream Protestant denomination, enabling Presbyterians, least for now, to
sidestep controversy as the church studies the issue for the next two years.

But some marriage equality supporters voiced disappointment
over the assembly's deferral.

"I am
disappointed," said the Reverend Shawna Bowman, who serves as a chaplain
at Rush University City Hospital in Chicago. "Change is inevitable. The
longer we drag our feet, the less relevant we're going to be to communities that
already minister to LGBTQ individuals."

The marriage piece is particularly disheartening for Bowman,
who attended the assembly and is also affiliated with That All May Freely
Serve.

"I think we made a conscious decision to bury our heads
in the sand and operate out of fear," she said. "We're afraid of this
and are not going to go there," leaving "LGBT individuals out to
dry," as well as "pastors who are having to make difficult decisions
every day" about "how to navigate pastoral care and these [same-sex]
relationships without any guidance."

Still, other LGBT advocates rejoiced over the Presbyterian
embrace of ordination equality.

"Certainly the vote on ordination, and even getting the
marriage vote out of committee, was a huge step forward," said More Light's
Adee. "This says to LGBT people of faith within the Presbyterian Church
(USA) and in other faith traditions that you are morally and spiritually equal,
which is a life-giving and life-saving blessing."

For Adee, the assembly's action sends a "clear message,"
he said, the denomination recognizes that "all children of as created in
the image of God" and all Presbyterians are "welcomed and affirmed
within our tradition."

Adee also said the move to fuller inclusion "encourages
us to live out our baptismal vows" to "support and nurture in faith
this child into adulthood." In other words, "there are no
conditions," he explained. "We don't say when a 15-year-old says he's
gay that we are going to withhold those promises."

Presbyterian advocacy for a truly affirming and welcoming
church dates back to the 1970s. During the summer of 1974, the Reverend David
Sindt, a graduate of the McCormick Theological Seminary, held up a large sign
at that year's General Assembly. It read: "Is anyone else out there gay?"

The lifelong Presbyterian's visibility and outreach enabled
him and others to found Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. Eventually
that group became More Light.